


Lost and Found

by Higgystar



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fill, Season 2, shane dealing with his demons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 14:03:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4524768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higgystar/pseuds/Higgystar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl is the boy they save from having his leg speared on the fence in the town in Season 2 instead of Randall. Shane decides to deal with the problem himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost and Found

Why the fuck had they even brought the damned kid back with them anyway?

Shane just couldn’t understand it. The kid had been shooting at them, trying to kill them and yet Rick had been weak, giving in to that damned need to save everybody and brought the fucking kid home. Now here they were back at the farm, with some kid none of them knew using all their medical supplies, taking up food and water and a silent threat to their safety. Why couldn’t Rick see that? Why couldn’t anybody see that?

Sometimes he reckoned he was the only one living in the real world. Was he the only person that could see what things were like now? What they had to be like for them to survive? Had Rick forgotten that he’d been shot before all of this? Even before everyone was thinking ‘every man for himself’ Rick had taken a bullet and almost died, yet here he was welcoming some brat with a crossbow with open arms. Shane honestly thought maybe Rick had lost some of his common sense while in the coma.

He finds himself sitting at camp and glaring at the barn where the kid is set up, with his leg bandaged, handcuffed and tied up, chained in place on the floor. Some would say that made him safe, but Shane knows better. The kid may not be a direct threat, but what he represented was a threat and they needed to prepare for that. There was another group out there with weapons of their own who were not afraid to shoot and kill other humans. Heck, maybe they were going to hunt them down since Rick went and killed some of their own. Right now they could be making their way here on a vengeance mission and it wasn’t like they were hard to find. Only inhabited place for miles around, no walkers milling about the field and livestock still grazing? Hell it was only a matter of time before someone showed up to take it from them.

Shane knows he can’t let this charade play out any longer. If Rick wasn’t willing to do what had to be done then he could be the man to do it. Glancing around camp he knows that most of the group are inside, Rick discussing what to do with the kid with the Greene’s and most of the group in there with him. Thankfully including Dale. He himself wasn’t exactly welcome after what had played out with the barn, but that didn’t matter. They’d thank him soon enough once he saved all their asses by doing what needed to be done.

They didn’t have guns, but you didn’t need a bullet to kill a man, or a kid. It was just a kid, barely out of his teens by the looks of things. But that didn’t matter, he was a threat and threats had to be dealt with. For their safety, for the safety of the farm and their people, and his unborn baby. If other people found them, found out what they had, then he’s got no doubt that they’d try to take it. He’d been told by Rick what the men he’d killed had said about wanting women, and about their group. They were not people who would listen to reason.

There was no other thing for it, if Rick wasn’t going to step up and do what needed to be done, then he would do it himself.

Striding towards the barn Shane keeps his hand on his knife, wits about him, checking the nearby bushes for any sign of an ambush. Some would call him paranoid, he just liked to think he was prepared. Slipping in through the back door, he gives himself a second to adjust to the dimness of inside the barn. Sunlight filters through some of the gaps in the beams, but it’s far cooler in here than outside and it doesn’t take long for Shane to set eyes on the problem he’s been thinking about.

The kid is small, probably not even out of his teens yet but that didn’t mean a damned thing. He’d had a weapon, tried to shoot his people and then Rick had the idiocy to bring him back here and even waste their medical supplies on him. Gritting his teeth, Shane steps forward into the main area of the barn, out from under the shadows and in front of the kid.

He flinches, scrabbling back as much as he can against the wall of the barn and Shane can see the way he glares angrily at him. As if the kid had any right to be angry after they’d saved his ass. He’s tied up, both arms and legs cuffed together and there’s a rag pulled between his teeth as a makeshift gag. Everyone else thought that was going to far, but Shane had fought for it, pointing out that any noise could draw in walkers or even worse, the little shit’s group of men.

So here he was, tied up, locked in the barn and looking damned pissed about the whole thing. They’d fed him, given him water and let him take a bathroom break every morning and evening so Shane didn’t understand why the kid looked so pissed. They could have treated him much worse.

His boots thump on the ground with every step closer and he feels even angrier when the damned kid tries to shrink in on himself as he draws nearer, as if Shane was the real threat here and not him. “You scream and I’ll break your nose.” Shane growls at him and though he’s still glaring, the kid nods in understanding as Shane reaches out to remove the gag.

He watches as the kid takes in deep breaths through his mouth, running his tongue over his lips briefly before shifting to sit up a little straighter. “What do you want?” The kid asks in a surly tone and damn that pisses him off. What right did the kid have to be pissed off with him?

“I’d think again before you start running your mouth boy.” Shane snaps, leaning over the kid and enjoying the way he shrinks back a little. “See I know you think you’ve got everybody here fooled, but I can see right through your little innocent act. You ain’t nothing but a problem for us kid.” He points out, shifting on his feet a little before crouching down next to him, still easily bigger and stronger than the kid before him.

The kid squirms in place, clearly looking a little overwhelmed, but Shane is used to this act from criminals. He’s not going to fool for it, no way in hell. “I ain’t got no innocent act man.” The kid mutters, but Shane knows better. Act innocent, act scared so they underestimate you. He’s not going to fall for that.

“Yeah sure.” He snorts out a laugh, wiping at his lips before continuing. “Kid like you running with a group of guys? Bet you ain’t been innocent in a long time.” He knows what guys in a group are like. Pack of animals and if it was bad before, heck it’ll only be worse now the human race has lost its morals. He knew about hazing, about testing new members mettle, so god knows what they’d made the kid do to join them. If he was one of the good guys and he’d killed a man there was no telling what some kid in a gang has done. Still he ain’t got time for this. “Now you’re going to tell me where they are or I’ll-“

“Break my nose. I get it.” The kid cuts him off and that makes Shane smack him about the mouth again, a backhand right across the cheek to get him remembering that he’s the one in charge here. The kid spits out a wadful of blood to the side, flinching a little before he continues. “But you’re wrong man. I ain’t like them guys. Weren’t like I wanted to be there.”

Shane snorts out a laugh, glad that he was a cop before all of this and couldn’t be so easily fooled. “Yeah sure, you just fell in with the wrong crowd. Heard that all before man. Used to be a cop, you can’t fool me.” He laughs and when he looks back, the kid looks more afraid than cocky now.

He watches as the kid shuffles in place, licking at his lips and looking worried. “I ain’t trying to fool you. I’m trying to tell you the truth, but I don’t want you running off and killing everybody at the camp.” He explains, and Shane would say he looks kind of desperate for some reason.

“So you do care about the people in your group then.”

“Only one of them.” And the kid looks a little upset as he tries to explain, eyes cast down but even Shane can see the cockiness is all gone now and instead he looks a lot more like a lost kid than a young adult. “My brother is there. Probably pissed as hell that I’m missing, might even be out looking for me. We didn’t want to join the group, we had to. Safety in numbers, you know that man.” Then the kid is looking up to him, almost pleading with his gaze. “You’ve got to listen to me. Those guys in that group? They’re assholes okay, but I’m not like that, my brother’s not like that. Please you’ve got to believe me.”

Shane pauses for a moment, looking down at him and how young he actually is. Kid can’t be more than a few years older than Carl, young adult almost, but not quite. He’s in those awkward years of not quite being anything. Still it doesn’t mean he can’t make his own choices and be responsible for them. The kid had been with a dangerous group and that made him dangerous, especially since he’d been on the business end of a gun pointed their way.

“Why?” He asks, settling himself to be more comfortable on the floor of the barn, hand resting on the handle of his knife just in case. “Why should I believe you? You’re a dumb kid that fired a weapon at my people.” He snarls.

“Did I hit?” The kid asks, watching him closely as he speaks. “No, because I didn’t want to. I’ve never shot a person before, I don’t want to.” And there’s a pause as the kid squirms in place again, ducking his head almost in submission before continuing. “Please, I’m just trying to survive. I just want to find my brother and get out of here, you don’t need to ever see me again if you don’t wanna.” Then the kid chews on his lip, looking on edge before continuing. “But I could help you out if you let me stay. Earn my keep and the like.”

It’s laughable, so Shane does laugh, loudly, and in the kid’s face. “Oh God you’re going to play that card huh?” Because he’s seen this before, he’s had criminals try every single avenue to try and get out of being punished and now this brat was trying it too. Well it wasn’t going to work, not on him.

“I’ve spent most of the time blindfolded, but I can hear you’ve still got livestock here and the barn’s got tools for farming all around it.” The kid continues, looking desperate, squirming with the handcuffs on his wrists as he speaks. “You guys are pretty set here that’s obvious, but what about when that runs out huh? What about in the winter?”

Well the kid is certainly observant and Shane has to admit that he already seems smarter than he’d given him credit for. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t trying to play them. “Now you’re worried about us?” He asks, chuckling to himself as he watches the kid nibble on his bottom lip again before speaking.

“Me and my brother, we grew up in the mountains we’re hunters. We could hunt for you, bring back rabbits, squirrel, heck maybe even a deer.”

He has to laugh because now the kid was pretty much just bigging himself up, boasting like he’s the answer to all their damned problems. Making it out like they actually needed them or something. “No shame.” Shane shakes his head, scoffs a little before he continues. “Just down to outright begging now are we? You so desperate to get on my good side now?”

There is a moment of pause between them and he thinks the kid might have finally given up. Instead the kid hunches in over himself, looking like he’s trying to make himself smaller or something. He seems uncomfortable, chewing on his lip, clearly anxious about all of this and Shane wonders why all of a sudden this seems to be too much.

“You called me a problem, I know what people do to me when they think I’m a problem.” The kid mutters to him, eyes down and seemingly lost in a memory for a moment. It almost makes Shane want to ask. Almost. But then the kid continues and he’s glad he didn’t waste his breath. “And you haven’t taken your hand off your knife the entire time we’ve been talking. I don’t want to die. I want to survive.”

Glancing down to his own hand Shane has to admit the kid certainly is proving to be more than a dumb redneck like he’d thought at first. Still that didn’t mean it was a good thing. “You’re a smartass ain’t you?” He points out and the kid looks a little flushed, before he responds.

“I’m a survivor.” The kid tells him, looking nothing more than lost and afraid. “Me and my brother, we could help you.” He pauses, squirms in his place on the floor and the kid is chewing on his lower lip bad enough for it to start to bleed. “I’m not lying here. That group means nothing to us. I’ll take you to them, heck I’ll help you take them all out if you’ll just promise not to let my brother get hurt.” The kid pleads, his voice catching a little in his throat.

Shane looks him over again, running his palm over the back of his head and taking in the sight. The kid is skinny, but who isn’t nowadays, short and clearly still growing. Honestly he could probably take him down in one hit, but there’s no knowing what the brother would be like. He mentally scoffs at that, as if he was even considering letting him stay. Heck even the group don’t want him here, they just want him alive and tossed aside so he can cause chaos for them later down the line. “Thought you said you didn’t want to kill nobody.” Shane points out.

“I don’t!” The kid barks, jerking in his restraints, looking damned pissed and ready to fight again. “But if it’ll prove myself to you then I’ll do it. Come on man, I just don’t want to die. I don’t want to lose my brother neither.” There is a moment when the kid curls in on himself again, looking like he’s stuck between screaming and crying. Instead the kid sighs, his shoulders slump and he looks smaller as he continues. “I get why you’re worried for your group, there are bad people out there, but my brother and me? We ain’t them. We ain’t.”

The kid shuffles in place, still bound, still on the floor of the barn and seemingly unable to look up and meet Shane’s gaze. Thing is, he knows this game. Shane has been played by criminals before and he’s not going to fall for it. Not just because some damned teenager, probably no older than Hershel’s youngest, is playing the pity card. Well he’s not going to give in to it, not today, not tomorrow and not when the rest of the group’s safety depends on him keeping his head on straight.

“You just happen to have joined up with a group that are assholes right?” He scoffs, remembering the group that had shot at Rick, tried to kill people he cared about and had left one of their own behind. “And we should trust you and your brother and you’re both just gonna join our group and we’ll be a happy fucking family together right?” Shane mocks.

The kid seems to wilt in place, huffing out a grunt of upset and it’s like whatever fire Shane had been stoking up inside of the kid had gone out. “I dunno what you want me to say man.” The kid’s voice is small, almost a whisper. He sounds almost broken. “Clearly you ain’t gonna believe me no matter what.”

Shane has to agree with the kid, he ain’t gonna believe him, not when there is no chance with taking risks nowadays. Rick can’t see it, he’s been asleep for too long, the coma has made him weak, and it’s up to Shane to be what his partner can’t. They need someone to take the lead here and do their dirty work, make the tough choices that Dale thinks humanity has grown out of. Truth is, the world has always been this way, ever since the cavemen. You took out threats, that way they died and couldn’t harm what was yours. He could be the man that Rick wasn’t able to be.

He hadn’t been there when it all started. Rick didn’t have to watch as the world went to shit and he hadn’t had to watch other humans be ripped apart by others. The man wasn’t strong enough to make these choices, luckily for him and everybody else on the farm, Shane was strong enough. He could see bullshit when it was thrown his way and he knew that there was no way this kid could be anything more than trouble.

Looking over him again, Shane can only see a problem they need to deal with, one _he_ needs to deal with. “Why should I believe you?”

The kid slips a little further down to the floor, giving a weak chuckle that is anything of humorous. “I dunno. I dunno what you want me to say. All I know is I don’t want me or my brother to die.” Shane watches as the kid finally looks up to him, licking at his chewed on lower lip before he continues speaking, no pleading with Shane now. “Please man I’ll do anythin’, I just don’t wanna die. And…and I don’t think you wanna kill me neither.”

“What makes you say that boy?” He snarls, and this kid is really starting to push his buttons.

“I’ve been here two days now man. You’ve looked after my leg, given me food and water, if you wanted to kill me you’d have done it already. Ain’t like you ain’t had the chance.” The kid points out, and even if it hadn’t been his choice, Shane must admit the kid has probably been confused by their actions. Saved, healed, tied up, checked on, fed, threatened, and still sitting tied up in a barn. The kid had a reason to doubt Shane’s threats, so he’d just have to up his game a bit and make sure the kid understood he was serious.

“Maybe I’m gonna kill you now.” Shane points out, head tilted to the side, gesturing to his knife. “Maybe I just came in here to get some information before sticking my knife through the back of your skull.”

He watches as the kid breathes heavily, eyes caught on the glint of the blade in the dim light and even shivering a little. Now he looks afraid, or at least wary enough to satisfy Shane for the moment. Or he does until he speaks again, voice small, but definitely challenging. “Then why ain’t you done it already?”

It breaks any restraint that Shane has left and before the kid can even beg for mercy, he’s grabbing him by his shirt collar and dragging him to his feet. Well the kid’s feet are still bound so he’s kind of balancing on his toes as Shane keeps him upright with his grip. “You’re a cocky son of a bitch ain’t you?” He snarls, able to feel the way the kid flinches with his whole body, jerking back in his grip and looking real scared for the first time today. “Bout time I taught you a lesson is that it? Little shit like you needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut, when to fucking shut up and learn his place.”

Shane knew this would happen if they didn’t nip this in the bud. The kid is too cocky, thinking this is all the lead up to him being accepted, thinking that Dale’s bitching and Rick’s hesitancy is all just a way for them to plan on letting him in. He doesn’t intend to let it happen any longer. The kid needs to learn, needs to be put in his place and know that that ain’t gonna happen. If Shane hasn’t convinced the others to let him take him out just yet, he can at least put him back in his place and teach him a lesson.

The kid isn’t heavy, just awkward, limbs too long for him and scrabbling with his bound hands to try and get some purchase on Shane’s shirt for stability. He doesn’t allow it, instead he keeps the kid upright with one hand and uses the other to put him in his place. His fists collide with the kid’s ribs easily, sad to say he’s had enough practice over the years with subduing the more rowdy citizens of King’s County. Each punch gets him a gasp in return, the kid tries to curl in on himself to no effect, leaving Shane to drop him to the floor and aim a kick at him instead.

“Maybe I ain’t killed you yet boy, but it don’t mean it ain’t coming.” He barks, not pausing for a moment, grabbing at the kid’s scrabbling legs and dragging him away from the wall. It gives him more room to swing back and hit him again, to land a punch to the kid’s chin, making him groan and choke on a mouthful of blood from a split lip. “You think I’m gonna let you fuck up everything?”

Kicking at the kid he can almost feel the bruises forming on his skin, he can hear the kid panting for breath, can see the way he’s curling up and whimpering. But the fire still burns within himself and he can feel it singing with each punch. If he’d had his way the kid would already be dead, their group would have already left the farm and been on the way to Fort Benning, they’d be safe and protected but because of Rick and his fucking stupid determination to save the whole world and not just the people that mattered, here he was. Dealing with some dumb kid that Rick had saved out of pity.

He grabs at the kid again, landing punches to his ribs, able to feel each moan from his throat. It’s his fault he’s stuck here. Having to be the bad guy. Having Lori look at him like he’s a monster, having Carl told to keep away from him, and his best damned friend acting like he was more of a man than he was. He’d saved Lori and Carl, he’d kept the group alive at the quarry and here Rick was playing king and making him look like he was out of control.

Fisting his fingers into the kid’s shirt he drags him back up off the ground, tries to stamp on his injured fucking leg to get him really understanding his place, when the kid’s shirt rips. The noise doesn’t snap him out of it, neither does the small sob the kid let’s out as he hits the floor. The kid’s back is littered with scars. Some are purple, others are white and faded but all of them are raised in such a way that Shane knows they didn’t receive medical attention. Some are small puckers of skin, burns healed into almost bullet wound looking scars. Others are long but strong, looking like they’ve been made in a harsh moment before being left to crack open with every move.

Letting the fabric drop from his fingers to the dusty floor, Shane crouches by the kid again, reach out a curious hand to feel the mottled skin. The kid flinches with a violent sob, crying for real this time as he curls in on himself, trying to hide away from Shane’s palm and hide in the floor of the barn. The scars are smooth. Despite being puckered at the edges where the skin has fused, the centre is smooth like a channel. Shane can’t help but run his finger down the largest one, following it from the top of it from the shoulder blade, down the line until his finger is curling under the kid’s side, touching just beside his hip for a second. Until the kid flinches again and brings Shane back to the here and now.

Stepping back from the kid he wipes his hand over his mouth, hating that it’s light enough for him to see the scars on the kid’s back. He can see the history there. The answers to unasked questions, the way the kid seems used to threats, to violence and Shane’s overbearing attitude.

It makes something in his stomach tighten. The world had changed that much was true, but it’s like he was trying to tell Rick before; humans are the same. He’s seen all sorts. Thugs, bullies, murders, druggies, liars and even just drunken idiots. Thing is, he’s always been on the other side of the line. But the line seems to be getting blurrier every single day this carries on.

Rubbing over his head he takes another step back, then another and another until he’s heading out of the barn, locking the doors firmly behind himself before he heads back to the farmhouse. They need to deal with this and they need to deal with it now. He can’t be the only bad guy anymore, Rick needed to step up, make his choice and make it now. This world wasn’t waiting around for Rick to grow a pair, he needed to man up, stand by Shane’s side and understand that he’s making the right choice here. The only choice. They have to kill the kid before he gets them killed.

He just needs Rick to do it for him.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Slowly working through my WIPs and trying to get all the multiple chapter fics updated too. I feel the need to spring clean and get everything finished instead of being half done and lying around my desk.


End file.
